The plight of the honeybee

Last year, beekeepers across the country and around the globe watched their hives dwindle down to nothing. So far this winter, the situation looks just as bleak.

Hilary Smith, staff writer

Last year, beekeepers across the country and around the globe watched their hives dwindle down to nothing. So far this winter, the situation looks just as bleak.

At issue was — and is — a mysterious condition known as colony collapse disorder, or CCD. In affected hives, almost all the adult bees have vanished completely. Only the queen and a few adult bees remain, with no carcasses left behind to explain the sudden population loss. Bees from other hives keep their distance, leaving the food stores in the affected hives untouched.

In western New York, the damage has been acute.

Bruce Figel, a beekeeper in Hartland, Niagara County, lost 85 percent of his bees — more than 1,000 hives — to CCD last year. In order to recoup his losses, he bought replacement bees and hives, then split what bees he had left into two groups in an attempt to strengthen the whole population.

With the replacement purchases, Figel says he spent more than he made this year. And after all the investments, he’s still down by 200 to 300 hives.

James Doan, a beekeeper in Hamlin, Monroe County, lost 90 percent of his bees to CCD last year. Like Figel, Doan spent the spring and summer gingerly rebuilding his hives, and in mid-September, he moved them to Florida for the winter. Just since the move, Doan says he has lost 50 to 60 percent of his remaining bees — and based on past experience, he expects the hardest toll to hit in January.

Some local beekeepers — particularly those who own fewer hives — have gotten through the crisis relatively unscathed. Pete Semmel of the Ontario County-Finger Lakes Beekeepers Association said that his own bees had fared well this season, and that few of the small-scale beekeepers within the 200-member association had suffered from CCD. That has led Semmel to believe that CCD is somehow caused by the practices of large-scale beekeepers.

Researchers, however, still haven’t pegged down a cause for the disorder.

“It’s not one single thing; it’s five things coming together to form the perfect storm,” said Sam Hall, a beekeeper in Gorham who is also a member of the Ontario-Finger Lakes County Beekeepers Association.

Scientists at Pennsylvania State University made a minor breakthrough this fall when they found a strong correlation between a virus known as the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, or IVAP, and CCD. But despite the correlation, researchers could not isolate IVAP or any other infectious agent as a definite cause for the disorder.

Other factors being considered include pesticides, pathogens other than IVAP, poor nutrition and environmental stressors such as drought.

Hall thinks pesticides are the primary culprit in the CCD mystery. He is especially wary of pesticides that are applied as seed treatments rather than sprayed onto grown plants.

Doan shares Hall’s suspicions. In March, 2007, he spoke at a Congressional hearing on Capitol Hill seeking federal funds for research into the causes of CCD. In particular, he cited a seed treatment known as GAUCHO.

“In France, the year before GAUCHO was taken off the market, one-third of the honeybees in France died. They have not reported any significant losses since,” Doan said in his testimony.

Beekeepers argue that the need for research funds is critical. They don’t have the financial resources to throw money away on a laundry list of “possible” causes.
Many beekeepers have sought loans to cover their losses and help them rebuild their hives, but banks are reticent to grant loans when it’s not clear whether CCD can be stopped or how it can be avoided.

“It boggles my mind to think we could be coming to the end of bees,” said Hall.
With the loss of bees could come the eventual loss of numerous fruits, vegetables and nuts, all of which are dependent upon bees for pollination.

“Three out of every five mouthfuls of food we eat are directly attributable to the pollination of honeybees,” Hall explained.

CCD awareness is increasing. On Sunday, the New York Times included “colony collapse disorder” as one of the “buzzwords of 2007,” and Congress appropriated $1.5 million this year to support further research.

Locally, Hall says that more people are recognizing bees as essential pollinators, not pests — when they find “nuisance bees” inside the walls of their houses, folks nowadays are calling beekeepers rather than exterminators to remove them, he said.
Doan says folks will really start to notice the bees’ decline come February or March, when it comes time for almond pollination season to begin and there are few or no bees available to do the job. At his own operation, the losses are forcing him to consider letting go his hired staff and selling off equipment.

The bottom line is, there’s no explanation for CCD in sight, and local beekeepers say they can’t sustain their businesses much longer if such high-rate losses continue.